1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a reading aid and more particularly to a reading skills development kit useful in developing a student's reading skills through phonics.
2. Prior Art
It has been long understood in the educational community that an individual's success depends in a large part of his ability to read.
There are at least two basic accepted methods of teaching reading. One method is the sight method whereby a student memorizes each word individually so that when he encounters the word while reading, he recognizes it. If he has never encountered the word before he usually will have difficulty since the sight method does not teach rules for breaking words into basic sounds. The other method is the use of phonics. Phonics teaches the student the sound of the letters or groups of letters in the word. The student then develops an ability to decode words, i.e. break them down into the basic sounds made by letters so that he can pronounce them correctly when he encounters them for the first time.
Many teaching aids are available to the instructor to teach the phonics method. However, there are very few simple, self-teaching methods and this can present a problem. The student is not able to learn on his own at home but must have someone, who can read, assist him.
It is toward elimination of these and other problems that the present invention is directed.